Thanks to my latest “find” – KungFuFinance.com – I learned about a company that will give you your credit score for free, without having to input a credit card.  Most other offers are “free” but only for the first 30 days, and then you start getting a charge on your credit card that you must call to cancel.

The company is called CreditKarma.com.  Great site.  You do need to put in your real information such as legal name, street address, date of birth, and the last 4 numbers of your social security number.  You also set up your user name, password, etc.  If a user name is taken, you have to choose another one, and if anything is out of whack with your user inputs, you will know and have to correct along the way.

After that, you are good to go and check out your credit score.  I found that the score they gave me was on the low side – maybe because Aunty likes to dabble with finding out best rates, getting my Hawaiian Miles credit cards, and investing to near max – or maybe they have a different system from FICO.  Regardless, it was also more than just a credit score.  If there is an area that you need to pay attention to, you will be able to pinpoint what that is and take action so your score can improve.

Spend time on that site once you are up and running.  It is full of hints and explanations.

One final Aunty note:  I have friends that have the most beautiful credit scores – 840, 820 – way up there.  I could have that kind of score too if I didn’t do much more than have 1 or 2 loans and not push the limits of our borrowing power.  Once you start to invest, your credit score will get lower – because you will be using more credit and have more inquiries from banks and institutions.  You can choose to have a beautiful credit score and protect it like a big shiny bauble, or you can choose to invest by shattering that big bauble into chunks of cash flowing nuggets.